Ghislain Lebel

[Government Contracts, June 14th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder when the minister is going to realize that the population needs a government with a moral stand.

Once again yesterday, new cases were reported by CBC and there will be more to follow next week.

Why will the minister not admit that, at the stage we are at now, it is absolutely imperative that there be a public inquiry, that one must be ordered and set up immediately?

[Government Contracts, June 13th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, how does the President of the Treasury Board explain that she rose in her place and told the House that the rules of proper management were being scrupulously followed, when that was far from being the case?

How does she explain this, except to say that, like her other colleagues who are involved, she was always trying to put a lid on things?

[Government Contracts, June 13th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, since the minister of public works does not seem to understand the questions we are asking him, I have one for the President of the Treasury Board.

While Media IDA Vision was enjoying the use of taxpayers' money, the President of the Treasury Board was happily telling us at every opportunity that all treasury board rules had been respected.

How can the President of the Treasury Board, the person responsible for the proper management of taxpayers' money, explain that she failed to notice that millions of dollars were going through Media IDA Vision's accounts, constituting an undue advantage to a company—

[Canadian Flag, June 12th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary's answer is exactly what I expected. We have before us the most corrupt government in the history of Canada's parliament, since 1867, but it has a strong majority. It put the lid on its mess very tightly, and now it is sitting on it, to prevent it from going public.

That is what the government is doing right now. It is afraid of authorizing a public inquiry because there are members of this government who will get caught red-handed.

An inquiry is what we have been calling for from the beginning. To recap quickly, for folding up little posters with the Canadian flag for the Salon du grand air de Chicoutimi, the bill was $318,000, with a $38,000 commission; for the Salon du grand air à Rimouski—all that had to be done was to cross the river with the bags—, the bill was $318,000; for the same thing at the Salon du grand air de Montréal, the cost was $739,000.

This continued in Sherbrooke, Chicoutimi and Trois-Rivières. All told, $2 million was spent. They took their share of this, and some money was donated to the Liberal Party of Canada. That is the scandal, that is the shame.

[Canadian Flag, June 12th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I suppose that I will be addressing the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services this evening.

I would simply remind him that on June 5, I asked his hon. minister a question about the now famous CD-ROM-Dessins animés. From what I can see, this is a small company which applied for grants in two separate years. In one year, it asked for $450,000; it received $550,000. God is therefore good, particularly when one has friends like Groupaction or Groupe Everest. The following year, however, it asked for $125,000 and that is what it got.

But in addition to this amount, an amount of $319,495 was also paid for professional services, an amount which I could not figure out. I naturally asked the minister about it. In fact, $675,000 in grants were received by this small company, CD-ROM-Dessins animés, but a total of $1,296,000 was paid out. And yes, the middleman was indeed Groupaction and it took its 12% cut.

I am a bit disappointed. The minister replied that there was no problem, that I could ask to have the question put on the order paper, which is what we are doing this evening, and that the information would be provided.

I see that the parliamentary secretary to the minister is here, however. Not that I do not like him, or that he is not a good assistant; on the contrary he is an excellent one. He will do here what he has done in committees since January, in sessions of the standing committees on transport, and on government operations and estimates.

I asked him to call before the committee John Grant, former minister Alfonso Gagliano, Mr. Desgens, Mr. Brault and Ms. Donnelly of Groupaction. The hon. member for Chicoutimi--Le Fjord and he totally lost it. To put a lid on it, they took advantage of their government majority in committee to prohibit any of these people from appearing.

I also wanted to have Michèle Tremblay come. This is a person who received astronomical benefits. According to the former minister, he who has sought refuge in Denmark, she alone received $10 million in fees in the past few years. This he said in a statement on television to a reporter, Mr. Bureau.

I am somewhat disappointed to see that this parliamentary secretary is the one with the job of putting the lid back on, hushing everything up, providing no explanations. Unfortunately, that is what we are going to have to deal with. I am speaking before him, and I know we will learn nothing from him.

I would like to hear from him who got the $319,495 in professional fees here? Who got this stupendous amount? An amount of $125,000 was asked for, and $544,000 received.

I will break it down for hon. members: $15,000 or 12% of $125,000 to Groupaction; $3,750 to Media IDA Vision just to write a cheque for $125,000, not a bad deal that; a subcontract of $80,237, although Mr. St-Pierre says he never did any subcontracting, and $319,495 in fees. Finally, there is a $80 travel claim. Scandalous. I would like an answer on this.

[Government Contracts, June 12th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I will read the press release.

Since the sponsorship program, according to all the ministers who have answered our questions, complies with all treasury board rules, why has the Prime Minister not changed these rules in any way, when they can allow the worst possible abuses, as we have seen?

[Government Contracts, June 12th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the scandals that are sullying the government at this time are connected to the abuse of power and the creation of a system of administration involving third parties who get their hands on some very tidy commissions by acting in place of the government.

My question is for the Prime Minister.

I challenge the Prime Minister to inform us as to which of the new ethics rules will stop his ministers from using the sponsorship program as they did before, and from handing it over to be administered by their cronies.

[Petitions, June 11th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I have the pleasure again today, one that has been repeated just about every day for the past week—what my colleague might qualify as akin to total delight—to officially table here in the House a petition calling upon parliament to call for a public inquiry into everything relating to the scandals assailing us since January. There seems to be no end in sight and no possible way out. This morning again, we have a petition signed by 90 people, which I table on their behalf.

[Points of Order, June 11th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday afternoon during question period, in the heat generated by all the scandal prevailing at this time to the detriment of the government, I let myself get carried away and said that the Prime Minister had violated his oath of office.

If this can salve the consciences of the Prime Minister, the House leader of the ruling party and my friends across the way, I humbly and sincerely withdraw those words.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that these measures have not yet been very successful. New scandals come to light everyday.

The second cover-up attempt by the government was to implement a communications strategy to keep the affair out of the public eye.

Will the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime Minister admit that by acting in such a manner, the government put the interests of the Liberal Party of Canada ahead of the public interest, and that this is unacceptable? This man, the Prime Minister, violated his oath of office.